Comparison

Lock Notes vs Standard Notes

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Lock Notes

Securely store and protect your private notes with a passcode or Touch ID. Keep sensitive information like passwords, secrets, and diary entries safe from unauthorized access. Backup and sync notes across devices, customize their appearance, and even add images.

Highlights
  • Passcode and Touch ID protection
  • Security question recovery
  • iCloud backup and sync
  • Customizable font style and size
  • Insert images into notes
  • Print and share notes
Features
Read full description

FINALLY AN APP FOR ALL YOUR PRIVATE NOTES! Keep your most valuable, private, and secret notes away from prying eyes. Keep them all totally secret and safe. Store passwords, secrets, contacts or just keep your diary private. KEY FEATURES: • Use Touch ID or passcode to safely lock access to your private notes. • Set a security question and answer in case you forget your passcode. • Safely Backup your valuable notes to iCloud. • Quickly Sync notes between iPhone & iPad with iCloud. • Sort notes list by name, date or manual. • Select notes font style and size. • Insert images & photos into notes. • Print your notes. • Send notes via text message or email. • Save notes to Camera Roll. • Support for Emoji Emoticons. This app allows you to automatically backup your notes for $9.99 a year through an auto-renewing subscription. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period You will not be able to cancel a subscription during the active period. You can manage your subscriptions in the Account Settings after purchase. Terms of use: http://www.katans.com/terms-of-use Privacy policy: http://www.katans.com/privacy-policy This app can be freely used up to two notes. A SINGLE PURCHASE COVERS ALL YOUR IPHONE AND IPAD DEVICES.

About

Standard Notes

Securely capture and sync your thoughts across all devices with end-to-end encryption. This app offers a simple, lasting place for all your notes, from personal thoughts to sensitive information, with robust privacy features.

Highlights
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Offline access
  • Passcode and biometric lock
  • Tagging system
  • Open-source code
  • Optional productivity editors and themes
Features
Read full description

Standard Notes is a private and secure end-to-end encrypted notes app. It allows you to write and sync your notes across all your devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser. Private means your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. Even we can't read the contents of your notes. Simple means it does one job and does it well. Standard Notes is a safe and lasting place for your life's work. Our focus is making it easy to write notes wherever you are and syncing them with encryption to all your devices. Our users love us for: • Personal Notes • Tasks & Todos • Passwords & Keys • Code & Technical Procedures • Private Journal • Meeting Notes • Cross-platform Scratchpad • Books, Recipes, & Movies • Health & Fitness Log Standard Notes comes free with: • Seamless sync across all your devices, with easy to use applications on iPhone, iPad, Mac, web browsers, and other platforms. • Offline access, so you can access your downloaded notes even without a connection. • No limit on number of devices. • No limit on number of notes. • Passcode lock protection, along with Touch ID and Face ID protection. • A tagging system to organize your notes (like #work, #ideas, #passwords, #crypto). • The ability to pin, lock, protect, and move notes to trash, which allows you to recover deleted notes until the trash is emptied. Standard Notes is completely open-source, which means when we say your notes are encrypted with industry-leading XChaCha-20 encryption, and that only you can read your notes, you don't have to take our word for it. Our code is open to the world to audit. We made Standard Notes simple because longevity is important to us. We want to make sure we're here, protecting your notes, for the next hundred years. You shouldn't have to find a new notes app every year. To sustain our development, we offer optional paid subscriptions which give you access to powerful tools like: • Productivity editors (like Markdown, Code, Spreadsheets) • Beautiful themes (like Midnight, Focus, Solarized Dark) • Powerful cloud tools including daily backups of your encrypted data delivered to your email inbox every day, or backed up to your cloud provider (like Dropbox and Google Drive). We're always happy to talk, whether it be a question, thought, or issue. Please feel free to email us any time at help@standardnotes.com. When you take the time to send us a message, we'll be sure to do the same. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Lock Notes4 screens
Standard Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Standard Notes at free with in-app purchases against Lock Notes's subscription. Standard Notes also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (3.7K vs 1.1K). Lock Notes's advantage is review sentiment (73% vs 63%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Lock Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year and Standard Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $119.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Standard Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.1K and 3.7K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 73% of Lock Notes's written reviews are positive against 63% of Standard Notes's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lock Notes ships an update every 10 days, Standard Notes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Lock Notes versus Standard Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLock NotesStandard Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (1.1K ratings)4.7 (3.7K ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.3% of reviews — better63.4% of reviews
Number of ratings1.1K3.7K — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJulyApps LtdStandard Notes Ltd.

Customer experience

Lock Notes

All ratings1,149 ratings
Positive89.6%
Neutral1.4%
Negative9.0%
Written reviews831 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral6.1%
Negative20.6%

Standard Notes

All ratings3,714 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.3%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews580 reviews
Positive63.4%
Neutral10.7%
Negative25.9%

User reviews

Lock Notes

From 1.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🔒 Secure notes
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Convenient
  • 🔑 Passcode/biometric protection
  • 💾 Cloud backup

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Limited free notes
  • 💰 Paywall for advanced features
  • 🐛 Crashes and data loss issues
  • 🔍 Lack of search functionality
  • 📁 No folder organization

Standard Notes

From 3.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and reliable sync
  • 🔒 Excellent privacy and security
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 📚 Great for organizing notes
  • 💻 Cross-platform availability

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
  • 🔑 Frustrating login/authentication issues
  • 💰 Expensive premium subscription
  • 📱 Limited features in free version
  • 🖍️ Lack of formatting options

Bugs and requests

Lock Notes

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Notes disappearing after updates
  • Inability to access notes after device reset
  • Sync issues between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Advanced formatting options
  • Ability to change passcode
  • Improved search capabilities
  • Folder/organization system
  • Better backup and restore options

Standard Notes

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes disappearing or getting deleted unexpectedly
  • Sync issues between devices
  • Keyboard and UI bugs on mobile
  • Compatibility problems with older iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for images and attachments
  • Implement a more robust search function
  • Introduce a dark mode option
  • Allow for better note organization (folders, nested tags)
  • Add undo/redo functionality

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Lock Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Auto Backup$14.991 Year
One-time2
  • Unlimited Notes$4.99
  • Lock Notes Pro$9.99
1 purchases

Standard Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year

Questions

Is Lock Notes free?
Lock Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Standard Notes free?
Standard Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lock Notes or Standard Notes?
Standard Notes is rated higher. Lock Notes averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Standard Notes averages 4.7 from 3.7K ratings.
Do Lock Notes or Standard Notes have ads?
Neither Lock Notes nor Standard Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lock Notes or Standard Notes?
Lock Notes ships an update every 10 days, and Standard Notes every 2 weeks. Most recently, Lock Notes was updated on September 23, 2026 and Standard Notes on September 22, 2026.

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